Superman: American Alien #6 (DC)

With the exception of Tom De Haven's It's Superman!, which was a novel, few writers have been able to explore Superman in as thoroughly human a way as Max Landis has within the pages of Superman: American Alien.  Part of its charm is that each issue features a specific period, a moment of identity crisis, in the formative development of Superman.  Each issue has an artist to fit that moment.

This issue has Jonathan Case.  I've been following his work in various exceptional graphic novels (Dear Creature, The New Deal), so I've been looking forward to the issue since the start of the mini-series.  What he brings to this particular moment is a feel for all those comic books geared toward people who don't particularly care for superheroes, the graphic novels frequently trotted out so that the public will take this medium seriously.  Since Case, to this point, has literally made that his home (although, especially with Dear Creature, in as imaginative fashion as he could), he's ideally suited to Clark Kent arguing with his old Smallville friends that becoming Superman wasn't a horrible mistake.

So often, we take Clark Kent's transformation into Superman for granted.  Once you get the origin out of the way, once he becomes Superman, the idea of Clark Kent becomes entirely subject to the Superman identity.  Clark fades into the background, fodder for the Lois Lane romance and little more.  He essentially ceases to be. 

Landis doesn't allow that to happen.  The Smallville TV series made a big point of keeping Superman entirely out of the picture, for as long as possible, and so it helped pave the way for storytelling like this.  Landis, however, takes it to an entirely new level.  It helps, I think, because this is literally his first regular comic book work.  He made his name with Chronicle, the movie that recast the superhero genre into the teenage angst genre (which director Josh Trank then attempted to translate back with the Fantastic Four reboot, to critical and popular derision).  It was all about creating a fresh perspective, and that's exactly what he brought to Superman: American Alien, too.

It may just be the best Superman origin ever.  The story continues in each issue, and every now and again, you're reminded of that fact, but the decision to base each issue on a given moment in Superman's young life is a true creative triumph, that has seen rewards each issue.  Loeb and Sale's Superman: For All Seasons did much the same thing, as did John Byrne's Man of Steel, but in Landis' hands, it feels different.  He never shies away from exploring the full impact of these moments.  They're not just impressions, or Landis attempting to hit all the familiar marks.  He's blazing new territory each issue, which for a character three quarters of a century old, is truly remarkable.

The New Deal (Dark Horse)

via Jonathan Case

writer/artist: Jonathan Case

That woman on the cover is actually the third lead, by the way, after a bellhop named Frank and a maid named Theresa.  The woman is Nina, and to say more about who she is would be something of a spoiler, but if you've seen The Dark Knight Rises, The New Deal might almost be described as Christopher Nolan's comic book caper sans Batman.

Theresa is black, by the way, and in a story set in 1930s New York, she's also an actress in rehearsals for Orson Welles' Macbeth.  Welles doesn't really factor into the story, by the way.  That part of New Deal has more to do with Jonathan Case's continuing fascination with working Shakespeare into more modern storytelling without actually using Shakespeare's stories to do it, as he did in the delightful Dear Creature (review here).

Case is an unusual talent.  Dear Creature took me by complete surprise when it was released four years ago.  I was pleased to read more of Case's work, and all the more surprised to find that other than the Shakespeare link, New Deal isn't really anything like it.  Sure, it's playful in the same enjoyable way, but it's grounded in the real world, even if it's a period piece (that doesn't bog itself down with period details).

Frank and Theresa are both trying to break out of ruts.  Frank is one of those hopeless gamblers deep in debt and desperate to repay it, but even as he realizes Theresa will be able to help him, neither has any idea how it'll actually happen, which makes their mutual acquaintance, the mysterious and increasingly fortuitous Waldorf Astoria guest Nina that much more important as the story develops.

Some readers might find its abrupt ending unsatisfying, but for me, it's more like a representation of the title, which evokes FDR's New Deal, of course, but also the fresh start our leads have attained.  The clash of the poor and rich is also a major theme of the story, with Nina another fine turning point there.

If New Deal isn't as breathtaking an achievement as Dear Creature, it's still another indication that Case is a major talent worth rooting for.

Graphic Novel Review: Dear Creature

Dear Creature is a graphic novel by Jonathan Case and was recently published by Tor Books. I would have to say I strongly recommend it.

Like a strange mix between the work of Jeff Smith (BONE, RASL) and Grant Morrison (JOE THE BARBARIAN, WE3), it's the tale of a sea mutant who comes to love Shakespeare and a woman who's been placing the Bard's plays in soda bottles and setting them into the surf. Case's art style (he covers all the creative bases here) is both realistic (the human characters) and cartoonish (Grue, our fearless sea mutant, and his crab friends), without seeming disjointed in the least.

In fact, Grue's love of Shakespeare results in his speaking in iambic pentameter (there's a great bonus feature about this for those who might need a refresher), and in fact the story almost seems like something Will might have written in modern times. Of course, it's also a monster story, from the monster's perspective (shades of David Maine's brilliant novel MONSTER, 1959, concerning King Kong). This is not your typical graphic novel material, and that's half the charm.

Almost as if he was inspired as much by comic books as the recent spate of computer animated movies (the best of them, like Pixar without the outright commercial bent), Case seems to have sidestepped all the usual handicaps creators tend to bring to the table when they work in the comics medium but don't do superheroes. He doesn't do arcane, or slice-of-life, or quirk-for-the-sake-of-quirk. He's got a genuine piece of inspiration behind this project, and it's all the more refreshing to have it in graphic novel form, rather than in monthly installments, so you have all seven chapters at once.

Like I said, there's a strong BONE vibe here, without the cuddliness and the fantasy elements, just a clash of cultures, a romance, and a great story. Also, Case has a great sense of humor.

Probably one of the best things you'll read in 2011.